Whilst in Jaipur this December, me and a cat called Ganjesh Meow Tikam Chand and Surendar by the side of the road outside of Hawamahal who had a camera from the 1860's as royal photographer of the palace. His great grandfather had brought this camera down from Germany in the

1860s and he proudly showed off an old Carl Zeiss lens.

what was most incredible though was that this camera transported you back to the 1800's too.

I became my own ancestor.

and it was Magic.

I saw myself as a ghost, with Jugular Bean

as starcrossed lovers like pressed rose petals.

As sisters between yellowed pages.

with family portraits that will hang on my walls for generations to come.

I'm going to start finding ways to work on a project with this man and him 200 year old camera,

but in the meantime - if you're ever in Jaipur

go down to Hawamahal and ask for the man with the ancient camera.

he sits on the side of the road clicking pictures of happy tourists and taking us back into a softer world.

prints of this image are available if you mail me at shilo1221@gmail.com

Khoya, as you know is the big big project for the iPad I've been working on for months and is my heartchild of sorts. Let me say this- Technology has never been this magical to me. :)

It's truly been a pleasure working with friends and creating a wonderful team.

Writing it, is Jugular Bean who I mentioned in the green jacket a few posts down. :)

and holding up curtains in my room in the next photo.

It's by far some of the best work I've done to date. And I can't tell you how excited I am.

Launching December 2011!

So any of you with ipads? Leave a comment! and I'll let you know when it's been launched

Second in the Rounds of Exciting News, is that I've been asked to design the INK Conference this year! All of the conference is going to be sparkled and adorned with me doodles. ;)

I can't give away too much except this one very mysterious photograph that's a sneak peek at what's to come. *bounces *

and the Third super exciting news is that I've asked to be a speaker at the WIRED conference in London in 5 days!!! Wired is like THE biggest technology magazine in the world and so as you can Imagine, I'm completely...errr... wired!

and...

I have a visa this time! yay! (though this does mean no free wallpapers though. hee)

This is a long ado update to the story that started on my blog and that everyone reading is a part of. :)

So when I last wrote a post, I was on a desperate hunt for good vibes.
and needless to say, many tests and trials later, all the collective energy of people reading this blog worked. yay!

I wrote that last entry when I was still waiting for my visa. I didn't end up getting it, missed the flight I was supposed to take, and decided to go to chennai to explore the only leedle strand of hope there was: To land up at the embassy and jump onto a flight from chennai the same day.

So off I went, with a bag full of sweaters for the english cold, but to chennai at the hottest time of the year with practically nowhere to go! I was taken in by a very sweet friend of a friend who I'd never met also full of good vibes, and landed up at the embassy at 8am in the morning expecting my life to turn into a bollywood movie. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. I didn't get past the gate where I was laughed at by the guards and employees. Apparently you can't just turn up at the british embassy and demand visas. :D

Back on the home front, a cat was doing her best to pull some strings that also didn't seem to be working out. All looked bleak. And so I sat outside the embassy, with not much to do or go, vaguely hopeful and mostly dismal and called a number that I knew no one picked up for the visa section in the embassy.
5 hours of phonecalls later, with no real progress at all, I let go and decided to just go back home.
I realized I was still happy to be going home to all my comfort and love. I surrendered and had done what I could.
It was around the same time that the number (on auto redial) had gotten through and they said my visa was ready and on it's way to bangalore.

the next hour was a blur. me yelling that I was in chennai and not to send it to bangalore, them saying they'd try and keep in chennai except their office (far away from where I was at that point) was closing in five minutes,jumping into autos, stopping traffic, running to the vfs office, finding it closed with two comical guards outside saying I couldn't go in and telling me to leave. A burst of tears (works every time) and suddenly I found myself getting the guards to open the office for me and being ushered to an airconditioned special office where I was told to wait. (all this not even knowing whether it had been accepted or not) and offered tea, and a man in a suit handing me and envelope. deepbreathe.openfold.stamped.

and three hours later, I was on my way to the airport with my bag full of warm clothes, shaking with excitement, and very very sleep deprived.

hello universe.
i am yours.this book is to the journey(and letting it take you where it will)

listening to mindspaces at TED global in Edinburgh

thanks to Levi's and all the love.

what do you think (so far)?
I think the world is bigger than I thought (and I love it)hellofate. I trust the tests make me stronger.

So this is what I've been secretly working on for a long long time.and having presented it as an Augmented Reality book for Kids and now an ipad app for kids-I'm proud to say It's also my diploma project at Srishti- and is going to be OUT there in the real world December 2011.Share it send it click it save it fund it develop it and rotate it.

Original Concept,Art, Animation and Design by Shilo Shiv SulemanWritten by Avijit MichaelSoundtrack by Nikhil Narendra

the background:I’ve always been a bit of a technophobe, fearing that if I got sucked into a computer screen I would lose my relationship with the natural world. In 2009, in dialogue with Mukhtiar Ali the Sufi Singer, we discussed how nothing had changed since the Mahabharat, lofty chariots in the sky are not unlike our aeroplanes. We came to the conclusion however that Magic had been replaced by Machinery. I found this quite disturbing.If anything, Machinery (and technology) should enable and actualize magic, not kill it. So I started working on Khoya, a series of interactive narratives for children in the Toy Lab. In it’s first avatar: Khoya became an Augmented Reality book for Children. It was amongst the first of it’s kind in the country and explored the boundaries of technology and tangibility.In it’s second incarnation, I started to work on the second book of Khoya on the tablet platform.

Hello universe,
for those of you who have read the previous post - You know of the twisted turns of fate that have brought me the opportunity to go to scotland!
Except *dun dun dun* I have very little time to get my visa. 10 working days to be exact! I have my appointment tomorrow morning.
I need a few more miracles and being a firm believer in positive thinking and the power of good love-
I ask you to send me some GOOD visa vibes!
So all of you reading this post- do keep the good visa vibes going!
muchos gracias
dhanyavaad
Thanking you
Shilo Shiv Suleman

ps- Here's a free wallpaper in exchange for those good visa vibes! it's from my new book for the ipad- The second book of Khoya!! tun tun tun... This is very much work in progress though! So stay tuned to find out more about Khoya and my visa-worries.
Lovelovelove

A community of young women being formed around the globe as people most likely

to pioneer their way into the future.

I told myself I'd apply. But went out of town, got distracted by a hundred other shiny objects.

and missed the application date.

A few weeks later- a beautiful stranger called me as I walked around the streets in Bombay

and told me I had 15 minutes to apply on the phone!

two days later I found out I was one of the 17 women chosen from across India to create the community! and I was amongst some fantastic women, some singers, some fashion designers, photographers, activists and more!

The first assignment of sorts was to create a visual diary of one's journey into our respective fields.

This made me feel like it was even more fated. I've been keeping visual diaries all my life!! :)

but but but!! the story doesnt end there. :) So in much of a hurry I sent off the journal too them with prayers and love. And as the fates had it, I sent it by the wrong courier service.

that (and get this) went on strike the day after I sent it!

And with tight deadlines and all- this caused many phonecalls between Bangalore and Bombay.

Half an hour before all the journals were being taken to the US (except mine because mine was lost)

it was found with the apartment's watchman (who ironically had the same name of someone very significant in my life) where it had been forgotten!! There we go again with divine intervention and the fates.! :)

And then and then and then (yes the story still isnt done with)

a few weeks later I got a call from Levi's saying I was 1 of the 4 women

chosen to be a creative ambassador of India

at TED GLOBAL in edinburgh.

Say what? Could this be troooooh? Yes it is infact!! :) YAYY

*bounces around the house*

this is the mothership of TED conferences and I am sooooofer excited :))

and so soon tooo.

*bounce bounce bounce *

Thank you blog for all the love.

It's strange thanking a blog...But boy do I owe this blog LOTS.

I started this blog in June 2006. When a young keyboard playing man I was charming at the time suggested I do so. I started by thinking I'd be a writer, realized I couldn't really write and started putting up my photographs. and then art too. This blog has within it 5 years of growth, of love, of visions, of tears, of joy and of gratitude. From when I was 17 to now. :)

(incidentally the man I was charming is the one drawn above.5 years later and we are still charmed)

Well, I have! and some handbound leather,wood and paper ones are going to be in Sale in Bangalore on the 26th at the Kitsch Mandi at pebbles!
and Postcards too! and posters :) Will post the detailed list of things to be on sale soon.

In the meantime however I started to scribble in one of my own notebooks. :)